Keeping unprofitable businesses open unfairly deprives employees of raises and promotions
Danny Meyer · Shake Shack: Danny Meyer · Jun 15, 2020 · at 44:05
Restaurateur Danny Meyer discusses closing his acclaimed Indian restaurant Tabla after years of financial losses and reflecting on the ethics of shutting down a business.
0:00 / 0:17exact quote · 17.8s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“In keeping it open two years longer than I should have, where we couldn't make ends meet, I was actually doing something incredibly unfair, which was to keep people on the team just because they were so loyal, and they were not getting raises, and they were not getting promotions, which just isn't right”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Danny Meyer
Shake Shack was the first public company to return its PPP loan
“Within 36 hours of understanding the government had run out of money, the company and its board made the decision to return it, and it was the first of any public company to do so, and that actually began a cascade of, What I'm told is well, well north of two …”
Meyer actively avoided hiring New Yorkers when opening Union Square Cafe
“My hiring, if you were from New York, I didn't pretty much want to hire you. I was looking for, because I didn't think of New York as being a very friendly place back then. I wanted a place that, that was welcoming.”
Meyer: Service is technical delivery, hospitality is how customers feel
“I think service is a way to describe the technical delivery of the product. Did you do what was expected? Did you get the right food to the right person? And I think hospitality is a very different thing, which is, oh, by the way, how did you make the recipien…”
Shake Shack redefined the classic speed, price, and quality trade-off
“Whoever wrote the rule that it has to be one plus one plus zero, and what we found is that it was not as fast as fast food, but it was a lot faster than a full-service restaurant, and it was not as inexpensive as fast food, but it was a lot less expensive than…”
Meyer: Entrepreneurs are naturally blind to downside risk
“I've come to learn that a hallmark of being an entrepreneur is that you are upsided, as in, you can only see up. You don't see what could go wrong”
Meyer requires cooks to have six core emotional hospitality skills
“I don't let our chefs hire that pasta cook unless they believe that the pasta cook has those six emotional skills, meaning that now you've got someone who's really good at what they do and who is motivated to do that thing because they are happier themselves w…”